


Evening Encounter

by xserpx



Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-25
Updated: 2020-04-25
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:07:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23841982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xserpx/pseuds/xserpx
Summary: Artemis returns to Chicago with a new project.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	Evening Encounter

"I know how ridiculous it might sound to the uninitiated," Artemis said as he checked the tiny electronic device in his hand. "But magic is real, and I intend to prove it. You just have to trust me, old friend." His young brow furrowed in mild disappointment as he examined the little screen, and he pocketed the box again.

Butler followed, taking care to keep the bemused humour off his face. He'd never tell Artemis this, but Butler had always thought that it was the boy's propensity to have hope in the face of almost insurmountable odds that was perhaps his most extraordinary talent. Even his vast intellect wasn't a match for it.

"Come on, come on," Artemis whispered impatiently, apparently at the magic detector. He turned into another darkened alleyway between two apartment buildings.

The lurid street lamps cast deep, impenetrable shadows, and Butler felt the hairs on the back of his neck rise, instincts telling him to be on his guard. There could be anything lurking in the shadows, and night-time Chicago wasn’t known for its neighbourliness.

"It's truly fascinating, you know Butler," Artemis continued conversationally, apparently oblivious to even the possibility of danger. "I thought fairy magic was the only kind of magic on the planet, but as it turns out there is another kind - one that has gone unrecognized by ordinary humans for millennia. And most interestingly, it is purportedly anathema to modern technology. Mobile phones, televisions, even light bulbs and credit cards, stop functioning in the presence of high levels of this unidentified energy we might call magic."

"Hmm," Butler said, trying to sound interested. The shadows loomed as they traipsed further into the alley.

"I know what you're thinking," Artemis said. "How can fairies have such advanced technology, when this other kind of magic exists? What is the difference between them, in physical terms?"

Butler had been thinking no such thing, but he humoured the boy. "And?” he said. “Do you have the answers?”

"No,” Artemis admitted. “Not yet. But rest assured I will be the first to find out." The boy checked the device again as he continued speaking. "I shall go to any lengths necessary, and at present I am attempting to exploit this magic’s biggest weakness. If all goes according to plan, I will once again be the first human in history to discover--"

"Artemis!"

Butler's hindbrain had told his legs to start running before the rest of him even registered why. He bowled into the teenager as another figure leapt from the shadows and rushed his young charge. Butler pushed Artemis behind a dumpster, and his Sig Sauer came up and aimed at the black shape. It was impossible to see exactly what it was, but it snarled horribly, no sound a human could make. The manservant could hear his own heart beating fast, blood pumping in his ears, but years of training kept his mind focused. Protect the principal. That was the only thing that mattered.

"Oh," Artemis let out a little gasp from where he sat behind the dumpster. Butler couldn’t see him, but he knew the boy was paying more attention to his device than to the imminent danger happening six feet away.

"Artemis, turn that thing off!” he hissed, but as he did so, he had to duck one of the creature’s sweeping arms.

"The box is broken," Artemis said, amazement in his tone. "Butler, it's broken."

Butler didn’t have time to pity the boy’s malfunctioning machinery. He raised the fairy goggles Artemis had cannibalized from stolen an LEP Retrieval team a few years before, and switched them on. They weren't working. The street remained dark.

“D’Arvit,” Butler swore under his breath. Hanging around Artemis and the Gnommish-speaking fairies really rubbed off on you sometimes.

“Humanssss,” hissed the creature. “Flesshhh…”

Butler tossed the goggles away and saw the thing’s gleaming eyes staring at him. Mad, empty eyes; hungry eyes. Its posture was that of a lioness just before she pounces upon her prey. There was a moment of silence that seemed to stretch on forever. Then the creature charged and roared, its awkward, long limbs flying out in all directions like flags in a high wind. The thing was fast; faster than any animal Butler had ever seen, and he shot at it, professionally precise. The bullets tore into the creature but it lost none of its momentum. Dark blood spattered the ground, thick and stringy, but the injuries didn’t seem to even register to the blood-thirsty beast now raking at the air with its two-inch, yellow claws.

“Artemis, don’t move!” Butler shouted.

The thing took a flying leap, and Butler shifted his weight, preparing to fight hand-to-claw if need be.

He needn’t have bothered.

As the creature reached the apex of its jump, another black shadow dropped from one of the apartment’s fire escape balconies. There was the quiet singing of metal sweeping through air, a soft squelch, and when the creature hit the ground it was in two pieces. Its head rolled to where Artemis was sitting, and the teenager peered at it curiously.

“Good work, Butler,” he said.

“Stay back, Artemis,” Butler said, sharply. Whatever had killed the creature was doubtless dangerous, possibly just as hostile.

The newcomer had rolled when they hit the floor, and now they rose to a height only a few inches short of Butler’s own. The streetlight illuminated a man; blonde, grey eyes, and leanly muscular. He wore a leather jacket, a grey dress shirt, and black pants. In his hands was a long spear spattered with blood, and despite having fallen from quite a height, he appeared to be unscathed.

“Ivy,” the man called. “Found them.”

Butler almost felt a shiver of fear down his spine, when a young girl’s voice floated out of the darkness behind him.

“Very good, Kincaid. Is it safe to come out?”

The blonde man surveyed Butler once, and nodded. “For now.” He addressed Butler directly. “Blue Diamond?”

The question caught Butler off-guard.

“Yes,” he said automatically, then narrowed his eyes. “How did you--?”

  
“I can tell. Haven’t run into one of you in a while, though.” The stranger nodded, seemingly impressed. 

“And you are?”

“Kincaid.”

Butler’s spine tingled, and his jaw dropped open. “You…”

Artemis poked his head round the dumpster, curious who the new voices belonged to. When he saw his manservant talking, he scrambled out of his hiding place despite Butler’s instruction, smoothed the wrinkles from his Armani suit jacket, and wiped gutter slime from his trousers.

“Well, that was less than pleasant,” he muttered. “Who is your new friend, Butler?”

“He is the man who has kept you from discovering magic for the last seven months, Artemis Fowl,” said the girl, stepping from the shadows.

She was several years younger than Artemis and wrapped in a fashionable cream-coloured coat that fell to her ankles. Her lips quirked up in a small smile. “I told him you were resilient.”

Artemis blinked at her. He wasn’t used to talking to children, especially intelligent ones. “I… um…”

“My name is Ivy,” she said, reaching out her hand to shake his. “Though I am here in my official capacity as the Archive and emissary of the Unseelie Accords. This is my driver, Mr. Kincaid.”

“Who--?” Artemis began, but Butler put a hand on his shoulder, cutting him off.

“There is something I’d like to address, before we get to the pleasantries,” Butler said. He pointed at the corpse of the non-human creature, lying several feet away in a pool of blood. “What on God’s green earth is that thing?”

They all turned to look.

“Ghoul,” Kincaid said simply. “They’ll make a meal of most humans - literally. It’s a bitch to take ‘em out. Decapitation usually works best. Otherwise a headshot with a high-calibre rifle. They don’t have much in the way of brains, but put a big enough hole in their skull and they go down eventually.”

Artemis looked up at Butler. “You see? I  _ knew _ it was the magic that killed the sensors! Clearly, the ghoul’s magical aura must have deteriorated the circuitry. My guess is that magic interferes with magnetic fields, but I will have to do more experimentation to ascertain the exact cause and circumstances under which—“

“I’m afraid the magical aura you detected was my own,” Ivy said. “Ghouls by themselves do not ordinarily possess any magical talent.”

Artemis’ blue eyes widened. “You can do magic?”

Kincaid sighed. “It’s too open out here to be having this conversation,” he grumbled.

“Kincaid is right,” Ivy admitted. “I would prefer not to have another ghoul drop in on us while we talk. My presence here alone increases the risk exponentially. Come along.” She turned and strode back the way she’d come, followed by Kincaid.

Butler looked at Artemis.

Artemis looked at Butler.

Then the boy smiled, and the two of them followed the girl and her hulking companion out of the blood-spattered alley and into the wide streets of downtown Chicago.

**Author's Note:**

> So far this is just a one-shot, though I do have some other ideas for AF/DF crossovers that I might explore at some point :).


End file.
